Antlers or horns from such animals as elk, deer, reindeer or caribou have long been recognized by many cultures to have medicinal or tonic effect. Extracts of such antlers, when ingested by humans, are said to lower blood pressure, fight aging, promote natural healing processes, reduce inflammation, boost the immune system and vitality and enhance sexual desire.
Traditionally, antlers have been harvested while they are rapidly growing as it is believed that the medicinal ingredients are most concentrated at that time. However, antlers are naturally shed once a year and it would be advantageous to derive extracts from the dead antlers.
Known methods of producing a suitable product from antlers include air-drying and grinding. In this method, the antlers are thinly sliced and then dried at over 60.degree. C. for 40 days or more. The resulting slices are then ground up to produce antler powder. This method is disadvantageous because it is inefficient and time consuming. The resulting powder may be contaminated by human pathogens or hair and may also have an unpleasant odor or texture which may make the powder unsuitable for human food use. More importantly, the composition of the powder is inconsistent and unpredictable.
Other known methods of producing antler products involve extractions of pulverized antler with ethanol or water or both, followed by freeze-drying of the extract. The pulverization process is more easily performed if the antlers are frozen, preferably with liquid nitrogen. However, it is likely that significant amounts of medicinal ingredients remain bound up in the insoluble antler matrix after extraction and it would be desirable to include those ingredients in the end product.
There remains a need in the art for a controllable and hygienic process to extract both soluble and insoluble ingredients from antlers harvested at any time during the antler growth cycle which process results in a consistent end product which is substantially free of hair and pathogenic contamination and which is otherwise suitable for human food use.